Fusion Message Board

In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.

Subject: Tom's visit
Date: Feb 12, 5:09 pm
Poster: Richard Hull

On Feb 12, 5:09 pm, Richard Hull wrote:

My friend Tom Ligon visited today along with his wife. He's the second banana in the Bussard fusion effort. He was home for valantines day and stopped by for a few hours to see what I was up to. He filled me in on a lot of the effort out west. (Sorry, nothing I can pass on. I am still under the signed non-dislcosure agreement).

I was stunned when, after seeing all of my neutron detection and counting equipment, he noted that my instrumentation in this area was much better than theirs! It seems they are still working on the fusion device and precision neutron counting for real has not become a major thing yet. They will certainly upgrade as needed.

I casually blasted out about 30,000 neuts per second (<21kv) while the Eberline Bonner sphere unit and Nuclear Associates- Victoreen neut counters clicked away. He was also very interested in my feedback and opinions on the BC-720 proton recoil system as well.

Tom's eyes lit up as I put fusor III through its paces. I could tell he was most gratified that the seed of this thing he planted in me back in 1997 had borne such fruit. When he arrived I had just machined out the new view port conflat flange for welding onto one of fusor IV's hemispheres. I also showed him the makins' for fusor V. He agreed that the production of electrons near the outer shell was a good idea.

We discussed indium activation and the best methods to make it happen.

Tom said that Dr. Bussard is quite pleased that a cadre of IECF adherents is slowly forming, and that this list is advancing the thinking about same.

They have hired a couple of extra technicians out there. One of them was-is a lurker on this BBS and Tom thanked me for training him for them. This was quite a surprise and humourous. I really wouldn't think that this BBS would be adequate training for a position in the nuclear biz, but in this case, the fellow was already quite well versed in a number of areas in which they required some skills. It seems this list put him in the know enough so that once on the job, there was little need to explain things deeply.

See, you can learn something here after all.


Richard Hull